All about Kenyan Communication Practice

“The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

Do not let your praise go unspoken before God’s throne. Allow the Lord to have and hold you close. Everybody deserves His hugs.

There has been so much pain, hurt, bitterness and depression in most of our hearts but today Lord, I bring all these hearts from deepest part of my heart and soul and cry out to you to heal. Hear our pleas. Hear our hurt. Before your throne O Lord, we fall prostrate for your touch. Just one touch of you and we will be healed deep in our souls.

I want to give you more so that Lord you will be more in me and less of me in me. For me to give you more, I need…

We can all agree that real estate is booming on all levels but the downside is most houses don’t meet our requirements and when they do not everyone can afford.

So I had a chat with David Nahinga fron UjenziBora on alternate forms of housing and here’s what he said.

1) Who is David Nahinga?

David Nahinga

I am a Quantity Surveyor by profession but since am in the building industry, i practice what we call (Archipreneurship= Using architecture as an entrepreneurial force to bring positive change in the lives of people and the environment). I am an entrepreneur, appreciate good thinking and knowledge. Am addicted to certain ways like book reading, risk taking, philosophy and Good Old Work.

1b) What does Ujenzibora do?

“Ujenzi Bora” is a pair of swahili words which means “good construction”. Our vision is to provide affordable housing solutions to first time owners.

For so many years I have been working with the wrong mindset when it came to my expectations at work. To make matters worse, I thought I deserved better; and much construed to the fact that I am a devout Christian seeking God for divine favor and mercies in all that which I do. But I got a wake up call over the weekend after a chat with a friend. And my world was literally turned downside up! For the better (I’m sure).

It is so easy to expect accolades, expect support, expect team spirit and expect understanding in any work environment. But what rule of law does that stand for? Especially if you are a christian? Yeah, yeah, we are often told its right to stand for truth, even so sometimes expected to be the banner of ‘righteousness’ and justice in our workplaces so much for the sake of being Christ-like. but what is the reality of what is expected of us in any workplace?

I know I will get some reactions from this but just hear where I am coming from. And for sure, I don’t mean for you to stop your work and start praying and preaching in your place of work as a Christian. No-no. That to me is not professional at all. I decided to at least work on these three things to reward myself in any working condition of which the most important was to give more.

1. Who said I should expect more apart from my full salary?

The only warranted expectation should be your paycheck. Do your work even if nobody will ever thank you. It is not in vain, because with time you sharpen your skills and definitely you will be noticed for your novel work. When you understand the principle that you are working at your current place of work to give out without looking to your superiors or your colleagues for affirmation and relationships, then you begin to understand that you are there to give to your employer and not receive. Remember, the ‘give-me spirit’ undermines success which is brought about by serving others professionally. Its all about what can you do for the pay you getting!

If I knew this little truth nugget years ago, I think I would have stuck to some previous jobs in the past. And its no wonder Pastor TD Jakes commented in one of his preaching saying that we ‘prostitute’ ourselves and our careers to the highest bidder forgetting that our call doesn’t necessarily mean we rely on the highest salary. But how do we survive? Try having 3 other sources of income (from your talents and gifts) so that you can live comfortably enough to do your job where you are employed and serve. Model over the weekends, teach an evening class, start community projects that attract donors and support, write a book, invest in stocks, just do something else. Do the side hustle- wisely.

You know I laughed at my husband when he started his projects years ago. It started with two small puppies pure German Shepherd breeds and 4 litters later, he has made a mark for himself as a good dog breeder with puppies worth buying. Then he brought home tree seeds and made a tree nursery. Today, he has over 40,000 seedlings of various tree species and a growing clientele who prefer his trees. When I thought he was done, he was already searching for other opportunities and saw the need to provide fresh organic food in our little town. Oh I dint just observe, I joined in the bandwagon at this stage. He is a simple Manager. Just remember never to misuse your employers time.

2. A challenge could mean something totally different from what you thought.

Most times when you ask your team leader for a challenge, you probably get a task you were not prior put in charge for or if you are newly employed, it could be task at hand in your new place of work. When we understand challenges as trials or tests, you understand that you are the solution to these trials. It is so unfortunate when one starts cracking the challenge with so much enthusiasm only to join the many others who already saw it as a very volatile volcanic mountain and started staying away from it or better yet, started looking for other better opportunities to work.

You are the solution to your work problems. Use your expertise and God given ability to make solutions that make sense to your company. That is why the Holy Spirit is there for you. Quit complaining that your place of work is drab; and that your work environment is hostile; and that the top management should be able to handle things better than they are being handled and be that blessing to your organisation. The ideal mentality you should have is, “What do I have to offer to be a blessing in my place of work? Shake off your ‘give-me’ spirit and instead wear the ‘what can I offer?’ spirit.

Yes, there are signs of sabotage, or even worse, you are working with a team that complains about everything in that organisation, maybe your colleagues morale could be low, or you just have a clueless team. I see it as an opportunity. What most of us end up doing often times is enter into that mindset or work environment to fit in but in reality you are losing your focus for being employed there. That is why God put you in that position This should be your opportunity to influence, to advice the influencers on the best strategies to take.

3.Don’t you ever go to your daily place of work defeated.

Positive proclamations towards your success could just be the weapon you need to get your job done.Start proclaiming support from your team members, start proclaiming victory in a troubling project, start proclaiming favor from your difficult bosses, etc. When you wake up in the morning, the last thing in your mind should be “Lord, I don’t want to go to that place, I don’t want to meet with that supervisor, I wish I could get a new place to work soon…..’ What you are doing is literally stripping yourself off your armor: Helmet of Salvation (your thoughts are exposed), Breastplate of Righteousness (you end up doing your job badly); Belt of truth (you start believing all sorts of rumors and false stories that dampen your spirit); Shoes fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace ( you no longer influence Christ); Shield of Faith ( you start wondering why God gave you this job if its so bad and you lose faith); Sword of the Word of God ( you probably miss out on the encouraging word of God due to dampened spirits)… Read about the Armour from Ephesians Chapter 6.

Do not go to work exposed. Arm yourself both spiritually, mentally and physically. Be wise and emotionally intelligent.

One last note, if you limit yourself to work with people that you like, then you limit your career growth and success and most of all, you limit your potential for God to multiply you according to your vision.

You know, we are in a rapidly growing digital era in Kenya where everyone with a smart phone can read anything posted online and choose to believe it or not. When it comes to corporate information, I always argue that you had better have no news than bad news marking your failures / challenges. The unfortunate thing with this article is that the story was meant to highlight the plight of university students who cannot afford good housing in Nairobi due to the fact that most of the campuses are overbooked with students and have not upgraded their housing facilities. Somewhere along the lines, Kenya Railways Pension Scheme houses were named as one of the few places that these students are renting and pictures of deplorable rooms and bathrooms were posted as well.

Well, the information is already out there and what is concerning me is the fact that I haven’t come across any comment from Kenya Railways Pension Scheme (KRPS) about this. I think this article is somewhat of a disgrace to KRPS and worse still a reputation destroyer for those of us who have grown up knowing of Kenya Railways brand.Why am I raising this up? Recently, billionaire and investment guru Warren Buffet said essentially the same thing I am trying to channel across… “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” Keren Peters-n Watkinson in her article on Redeeming Reputation states that thanks to social media and the World Wide Web, it is much harder to bury, outrun or outlive a bad reputation. Online news articles, blogs, public record, video recordings, digital photographs, personal misdeeds and corporate wrongdoings are thoroughly documented — and available for anyone to see online 24/7 — forever. http://mondaymornings.madisoncres.com/redeeming-reputation-1/

Well, if I was the management of KRPS, this is what I would do to at least start the process of redeeming its reputation.

Avoid responding badly to such kind of information. Reactive information in front of media does not work anymore. There are so many digital connections to the outside world that have cropped up as compared to the old days where we relied heavily on TV and radio as mainstream media.

Learn from similar companies how they have protected their reputation in such situations. What this simply means is benchmark yourselves with a successful company in reputation building and seek to raise your reputation using guidance from their success stories.

Plan a policy or change your existing policy plan regarding who is to live in those houses you own. The areas to look at and communicate to existing home owners is procedures relating to misuse of these homes either as employees or benefactors of these homes from Kenya Railways Pension Scheme. Of course, there might crop up legal issues while handling this subject hence legal advice is paramount. The policy plan can also touch on asset development, upgrade or renovation. I believe, Kenya Revenue Authority did some renovation to their houses along Langata Road a few years back. I would not know if it was a success story but there was evidence of work done on renovations as well as information shared with relevant stakeholders including the media. Another case in point is that of Cadbury who in 19th Century purchased acres of land to house his employees who were living in deplorable conditions for the sake of retaining employees in healthy conditions. He created Bournville Garden Village which is still in existence today and well maintained.

Engage your communication department to initiate stakeholder meetings and briefs to update all stakeholders step by step on the requirements of renovation. This is where KRPS shall create a buzz and let all the concerned stakeholders on the intentions of doing good and remedying the already gone bad that is attached to the company brand. Send out press releases, call for media briefings, hold staff meetings etc.

Remember, Corporate reputation makes or breaks the investor’s decision on whether or not to purchase a company’s stock. If no one is willing to take ownership of a company, on account of its reputation, then its stock will plummet, its cash flow will cease and it will be forced to file for bankruptcy as no one will want to do business with that corporation. This is, of course, the worst possible scenario for a corporation with a damaged reputation.

Have you created a reputation plan for your organisation? Start one now and present it to your Management.